Columbia 1

I was heading down the hill into downtown Seattle last week to meet Miz Becky for dinner and saw part of this window in the Columbia Tower out of the corner of my eye. While I tried to figure out why I had never noticed this structure before, I started exploring with my camera.

A few minutes later I saw a security guard come out of an elevator. He looked around, saw me, nodded -- obviously looking for me -- and headed around to the door outside. I kept shooting, since that's the best way to not look guilty.

He told me that I couldn't photograph the building without permission from the building owners -- not actually true, since I was on a public thoroughfare, but I was done, so I played nice. "Oh, sorry! Thanks for letting me know." He seemed surprised I wasn't hassling him. "Uh, OK, you're welcome." "Have a good evening! Thanks again!"

Of course, my experience would have probably been very different if I had somewhat darker skin... looking plausibly Arab in the minds of whoever spotted me on the security cameras would have meant a conversation with the police or homeland security instead of an easily distracted rent-a-cop.

In any event, some photos from before I was busted by the fucking pigs, man, over the next few days.